With the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government going after former minister for Health Eatala Rajendra in land cases, the Bharatiya Janata Party has begun moves to lure him into its fold on Tuesday.
While party president and Karimnagar Member of Parliament Bandi Sanjay Kumar is believed to have met the former minister and invited him to join the party, the political heat increased with reports of Union Minister of State for Home G. Kishan Reddy too air dashing to Hyderabad along with a senior party functionary from New Delhi in a special plane to to meet Mr. Rajender.
In an informal chat with the media persons later in the day, the Minister denied meeting the senior TRS leader but admitted that efforts were on to get them together for a meeting. He and Mr. Rajender have known each other for at least 15 years and there is nothing wrong in their meeting but it does not mean the latter was joining the BJP, Mr. Reddy asserted!
“We have not decided when to meet but he informed me that he was meeting several political leaders and we would be meeting him too in the same manner,” maintained the senior BJP leader.
Top BJP sources, however, say the invitation to join the party has been extended to Mr. Rajender in the light of relentless pressure from the Telangana government in the form of inquiries into alleged land grabbing. “We are hopeful of repeating the Dubbak byelection win if he decides to resign and contest a byelection as our candidate but we gather he is weighing all options,” they claimed.
The saffron party is of the opinion that Mr. Rajender has a sizeable following in and around his constituency and his influence as a backward class leader could bring in lot of momentum before the next elections. If that happens, it will be big swing from the extreme left of politics to the extreme right for the former minister who was a PDSU activist in his student days.
